The Final Experiment
by TheChildOfTheTardis
Summary: The Doctor and River Song are going out on a date. But the Tardis has other ideas and they end up landing on an asteroid that mysteriously hums with power. They soon discover that they've stumbled into one of the Rani's masterplans. But what secrets are being hidden in her lab? What exactly is the final experiment? And what will the concquences be when River meets another Timelord?
1. Chapter 1

**This story references events from my 2 previous stories The House Of The Shadows and Krynos Rising so you may want to read them first for this to make complete sense. **

The Final Experiment

CHAPTER 1

The lab was dark. Of course it was dark Ushas kept it dark to not interfere with any of her experiments and specimens that she kept in the lab. However she always careful in the dark around her Vashta Nerada tank. At the moment she was stood over one of many monitors watching the latest information being transmitted from her Chronosteen. Chronosteen, what a perfect way to record her experiments unlike the Time Transmitters which the Doctor's rickety old type 40 Tardis kept detecting. The update had finished this one seemed to be going well so far. Soon she'd have all the data she needed to begin her big experiment. Her greatest experiment yet. However for now she still needed to do some more research experiments. Ushas walked over to her six sided console her shoulder length curly black hair swishing. She input her co-ordinates and activated her Tardis.

STORMCAGE CONTAINMENT FACILITY

For now Doctor River Song was in cell in Stormcage with the rain beating down outside. For now. However she would be leaving shortly as her husband was coming to pick her up for another evening escapade. She lay on her bed looking through her Tardis blue diary at some of their previous adventures whilst she waited for the Tardis to arrive a smile playing on her lips. The Tardis Vworp-Vworped into existence in front of her cell. River sighed when was he going to learn to take the breaks off. The police box doors flung open and their stood the Doctor in his usual tweed jacket and bow-tie.

"Hello sweetie!" River Song smiled at her husband happy to see him again.

River walked into the Tardis followed by the Doctor. River was egar for the night ahead.

"So what's the plan for tonight sweetie?" asked River as she walked up to the Tardis console.

"I thought we'd try grav boarding on Alpha Centuri. Apparently the 43rd century is particularly good." answered The Doctor getting excited about his plan for the evening.

"Well let me get the co-ordinates and I'll land us there in time zone and the right place." The Doctor had long since given up fighting River on flying the Tardis she was after all the child of the Tardis so he might as well let her. River input the information to the Tardis an started to fly.

The Tardis made an even more unhealthy sound than usual as it lurched about in the Vortex. "I thought you could fly the Tardis! I thought you'd had lessons from the best!" said the Doctor empathetically.

"I can and I have. But I'm not flying her she's taken control of herself. I'm not flying the Tardis she is." shouted River in response.

"Well hold on this can't go on too much longer." the Doctor tried to reassure River. It didn't work.

"I am holding on!"

The Tardis eventually managed to regain normal flight and landed on an asteroid. The asteroid hummed with energy. The same kind of energy the Doctor's Tardis hummed with. The Doctor and River stepped out of the Police Box.

"Ok River any idea where we've landed?" asked the Doctor as he locked the Tardis door.

River got a physic message from the Tardis. She sensed a Victorian looking girl telling her they'd landed here on purpose. "I'm not sure but the Tardis just sent me physic message she never normally does that so. She said we've landed here on purpose."

"So where ever we are we need to be here and it's boosted your mental connection to the Tardis." the Doctor summarised.

River received another message from the Tardis and proceeded to tell the Doctor it. "She's just told me she can't tell me why we need to be here because we have to find that for ourselves. But it's important that we are here." River decided to scan the asteroid for hostile life forms and other dangers. "I'm picking up large traces of temporal energy and not from the Tardis."

The Doctor and River walked around the asteroid trying to find why they needed to be here. After a while River found a hatch the Doctor soniced it and they walked through into the heart of the asteroid. To their surprise the inside of the asteroid was a darkened high tech lab. The lab had many tanks and monitors around it. The Doctor walked over to one of the monitors and turned it on. He saw Rivers glare.

"What it might have clues about where we are and why." he said defensively.

The monitors screen flared into life saying EXPERIMENT RECORDS. This intrigued the Doctor and River and they leant forward to read what the monitor was saying.

EXPERIMENT ALPHA 789: VASHTA NERADA STUDY - HOUSE (DESIGNATED LESTER COLLINS) BUILT OF WOOD FROM VASHTA NERADA FOREST. PLACED ON EARTH AND LEFT WITH TIME TRANSMITTER TO RECORD EVENTS.

RESULTS- HUMAN FEMALE NAMED ELISABETH GAIL KILLED. TIME LORD KNOWN AS THE DOCTOR INTERFERENCE STOPPED EXPERIMENT.

DESIGNATION- FAILURE

NOTES- THE DOCTOR AND HUMAN ASSOCIATE PREVENTED COMPLETION OF EXPERIMENT . TO AVOID FUTURE INTERFERENCE FROM DOCTOR CHANGE RECORDING TECHNIQUES AS HIS TYPE 40 DETECTED THE TIME TRANSMITTER.

River looked at the Doctor. The Doctor knew exactly what she wanted to know from that look. "This is someone's lab and they've been conducting experiments. This is the record of them." The Doctor tried to explain

"Thats not what I wanted to know Doctor I wanted to know which human associate was it"

"Erm Martha. The medical student travelled with my 10th incarnation." said the Doctor fondly remembering his friend. He'd have to pay her a visit some time. "Right lets see if the Krynos incident was connected to this."

EXPERIMENT ALPHA 790: KRYNOID TEST- KRYNOIDS PLACED ON KRYNOS 500 YEARS BEFORE THEY EVOLVE TO SEE IF THEY SURVIVE. USING CHRONOSTEEN TO MONITOR RESULTS.

RESULTS- KRYNOIDS WEAKENED PUT MANAGED TO ADAPT. ELAND EXPEDITION ARRIVE ON KRYNOS. KRYNOIDS ABLE TO KILL MAJORITY OF EXPIATION. ONE ELAND FOUND CHRONOSTEEN AND USED IT.

++++++DATA CORRUPTED UNKNOWN SOURCE+++++++

NOTES- ENSURE LIFE FORMS CANNOT INTERFERE WITH CHRONOSTEEN FOR FUTURE EXPERIMENTS.

"I was right!" said the Doctor triumphantly "I said the events on Krynos where connected to Lester Collins."

River smiled at him realising who was responsible for the data being corrupted."So tell us the rest sweetie?"

"Magenta and I arrived got attacked by the Krynoids then used the Chronosteen to remove the Krynoids from that time zone so it never happened." said the Doctor summing up the adventure quickly. "Right lets look at another experiment."

EXPERIMENT ALPHA 791: DALEK FACTOR EXPERIMENT- DALEK FACTOR PLACED INTO A GROUP OF SCHOOL BOYS WHO CRASH ON A DESERTED ISLAND. RESULTS RECORDED TO SEE HOW FAST THE DALEK FACTOR CAN TAKE HOLD.

RESULTS- BOYS DESCENDED INTO SAVAGERY VERY QUICKLY AFTER A FAILED ATTEMPT AT AN ORDERED SOCIETY. SEVERAL OF THEN KILLED. HUMAN NAVY INTERFERED AND RESCUED THE BOYS. HUMAN SPECIALISTS INTERFERE AND REMOVE DALEK FACTOR.

DESIGNATION- LARGELY SUCCESSFUL

NOTES- TRY TO AVOID CATCHING ATTENTION OF HUMAN SPECIALIST NONE AS UNIT. OTHERWISE VERY SUCCESSFUL IF LEFT DALEK FACTOR WOULD HAVE TOOK OTHER FULLY.

"Where you there for that one?" asked River.

"No I dont think so. But I told UNIT how to stop the Dalek Factor after the Master attempted to use the Daleks to take other Earth." explained the Doctor. Remembering stopping the Master and the Daleks with Jo and the Brig.

"Was it just me or did you think that sounded like a book?" River was fairly sure she'd read it but just couldn't place it.

"Hmm The Lord Of The Flies. I hated that book. Anyway lets see what's next."

EXPERIMENT ALPHA 792: OBSERVING THE SCARD- CHRONOSTEEN PLACED ON ONE OF THE GATEWAYS TO OUR UNIVERSE USED BY THE PAN-DIMENSIONAL SCARD.

RESULTS- LEARNT ABOUT THE PHYSIOLOGY OF THE SCARD AND THEIR METHODS OF TRAVELLING BETWEEN THE DIMENSIONS.

DESIGNATION- SUCCESS

RESULTS- DUE TO THE IMMENSELY POWERFUL NATURE OF THE SCARD UNABLE TO INTERACT WITH THEM. RECORDED ALL ESSENTIAL DATA ON THE SCARD.

"Well that one was boring!" exclaimed the Doctor.

"Why because it didn't have you in it? Have you met the Scard?" teased River

"Exactly! And yes met them once they're a very strange species."

EXPERIMENT ALPHA 793: BACTERIA ON CHOSAN- BACTERIA DEADLY TO MARINE EARTH REPTILES RELEASED NEAR COLONY ON THE PLANET CHOSAN.

RESULTS- HUMAN ARCHAEOLOGIST BERNICE SUMERFEILD INTERFERENCE SAVED THE REPTILES FROM THE BACTERIA.

DESIGNATION- FAILURE

RESULTS- BERNICE PUT A HOLT TO THE EXPERIMENT BEFORE IT HAD BEEN COMPLETED PROPERLY

"Benny!" the Doctor and River simultaneously exclaimed.

"You know Benny?" asked the Doctor.

"Of course I do she's one of my best friends. There's not many time travelling archaeologists you know!" said River thinking that she definitely needed to visit Benny again at some point soon. Just then the Doctor and River heard a pear of high heels clipping on floor as someone walked towards them. They could see the silhouette of a person in front of the door.

"Hello again Doctor. Long time no see." she said with a venomous tone in her voice.

"NO! You can't be! Is it really you?" said the Doctor not believing what was going on.

"Yes I am. I am the Rani. she said.

**Thank you for reading please leave a review and come back for the next chapter! **

**If anyone wants to know a bit more about the experiments mentioned then here's my little guide to them! The Vashta Nerada are in my previous Fan Fiction The House Of The Shadows, the Krynoids are in my previous Fan Fiction Krynos Rising, the Dalek Factor is a joke about book The Lord Of The Flies (We had to read it and I hated it. I thought it would be so much better if it had Daleks in!), the Scard are going to be the monsters in my next fan fiction and the Chosan experiment is from the CD Bernice Sumerfeild And The Poisson Seas.**

**Once again I hope you enjoyed it and thanks for reading!**


	2. Chapter 2

The Final Experiment

CHAPTER 2

The Rani walked into her laboratory. This was the Rani's third incarnation she had shoulder length curly black hair and wore a red knee length dress with a pair of red high heels. The Doctor was shocked weren't he and River the only Timelords in the universe now? Why hadn't either of them detected her before? Could she really be the Rani? The Doctor kept his thoughts to himself he knew what she was like he couldn't give her the upper hand.

"So how did you survive the Time War?" asked the Doctor.

"Simple I created a pocket universe to stay in whilst the war was going on so I could come out safe and sound when either the Daleks or Timelords had won." she explained her method of escape.

River now realised that whoever this woman was she was another Timelord. It was no longer just her and the Doctor there was this other Timelord. River couldn't believe it.

"OK Rani next question. Why is your lab in this asteroid why aren't you using your Tardis?"

"Two questions in a row Doctor? Feeling greedy are we? I am using my Tardis this asteroid is my Tardis. You forget I still have a working Chameleon Circuit."

The Doctor pondered this information allowed. "Ahh so that explains why could breathe on its surface, why it was humming with power, why we found the trap door and what Martha saw in the Time Vortex during Lester Collins."

"My turn for a question Doctor. Who is this woman with you? My scanner is having trouble working out if she's human or Timelord."

River decided this was her turn to talk and give the Rani the simplified version of her life story. "I'm Doctor River Song archaeologist, I'm a Human with Timelord DNA, I'm a weapon created by the Silence to kill the Doctor and I'm the Doctors wife." River could tell by the Doctor's expression that she'd said too much.

The Rani gave a small smile thinking how the Doctors wife could fit nicely into her final experiment. She needed to convince River she didn't have a secret agenda and so decided to respond to her statement.

"Interesting. I am the Rani the most gifted and brilliant scientist to that Galifrey had ever produced."

The Rani could tell River was impressed with her. Excellent she's just fallen into her little trap."

The Doctor knew the Rani and knew she was taking too much interest in River. He needed to deflect the attention back on to him instead of River. "I still have some more questions Rani." said the Doctor in mock impatience. "What happened to the Vashta Nerada after I sent them into the Time Vortex?"

"Simple I recaptured them and they are now being stored in one of the tanks in this very laboratory." The Doctor and River both flinched at the mention of Vashta Nerada in the same room as them. The Rani noticed this and then said "Don't worry there perfectly secure in their fenito glass tanks they can't get you."

The Doctor needed to keep the Rani talking whilst he figured out her plan so he could keep River safe. "So what where the experiments for?"

"To get results of course." she would have just left it at that but she needed River for the final experiment and that meant she had to be nice to the Doctor.

"Lester Collins was to see how large Vashta Nerada concentrations adapt to low concentration planets I would have got results if you hadn't interfered. You've already read about Krynos and the Dalek factor. The Scard was to learn about there biology and if it could be adapted and applied to other beings. Chosan was to see how restraint Marine Earth Reptile biology is."

River had another question "By Marine Earth Reptile you mean the Sea Devils don't you?"

"Well that's one name for them but yes they are what I mean." replied the Rani still manipulating River.

"And final question what were all the results from the experiments for?" asked the Doctor getting more and more worried at how she was treating River.

"They were all for the final experiment. My greatest experiment yet!" said the Rani with a lot of pride.

"And what is the final experiment?" asked the Doctor needed to know what this was and what Rivers part in it was.

"The rebirth of the Timelords!"

**Thank you to everyone who has read this so far. I hope you enjoyed it and please leave a review. If you were hoping for a more action based chapter then I appologies the next chapter shall be more actiony. But in this chapter I wanted to deal with all the dangling questions. Once again I hope you enjoyed it and please leave a review. **


	3. Chapter 3

The Final Experiment

CHAPTER 3

The Rani wasn't really going to bring back the Timelords. Who would want to bring back the pompous, self opinionated, closed minded "guardians of time" she thought. But she River would be useful for the final experiment and this was just the snare to pull her in.

"Can I help you?" asked River who'd fallen for the bait and walked right into the Rani's trap. The Doctor couldn't believe it was the Rani really going to bring back the Timelords when they'd exiled her and she ran away from the war? And River really fallen for the Rani's plan? The Doctor knew that besides him she'd never met another Timelord but would she really side with the Rani? The Doctor needed to know more about the final experiment to begin to get close to the answers of his questions.

"And how are you going to go about bringing the Timelords back?" he asked trying to dig deeper into the many layers of the final experiment.

"I am going to rebuild Timelord DNA , then create a new physical Timelord body for the DNA go in from scratch." the Rani explained.

"But thats impossible isn't it? Any way you've never created life before only manipulated other species." asked a sceptical Doctor.

"It's not impossible Doctor if you're one of the most brilliant scientists the universe has ever seen. Yes I've never created life from scratch before but that's why this is the final experiment. It's my greatest triumph and that's why it's involved around 2135 research experiments to ensure it's success." The Doctor was seeing more and more just how unhinged the Rani was and River had just walked into her trap.

"Well Rani as brilliant as this sound how are you going to do this with Vashta Nerada on the lose?" The Doctor had secretly been scanning the tanks to find which was the nearest empty one to the one that had the Vashta Nerada in it. With luck the tank right next to the Vashta Nerada was currently empty so he pointed the Sonic Screwdriver at it shattered the glass and made a run for it in the confusion. He wasn't actually going to release the Vashta Nerada in the the dark lab that would be suicidal and he wasn't willing to risk River with just to prove a point. But there was something about the Rani that was not right and he needed to find out maybe her Tardis held the answers. He ran off into the body of her Tardis.

In the darkness of the Rani's lab it was hard to tell if the Doctor had really released the Vashta Nerada or not. But to be on the safe side the Rani had activated a containment field around both herself and River.

"I'm scanning the lab to see where the Vashta Nerada are but I'm only picking them up in the tank." said River

"It's possible that the Doctor may not actually have released them whilst he can be infuriating he isn't stupid."

"Can we move about in these containment fields?" asked River.

"Should be able to if I can just adapt the settings." The Rani fiddled with her controls. "There we can move about now."

The Rani and River Song moved around the lab to get closer to the tank with the Vashta Nerada had been in. When they arrived they discovered that the Vashta Nerada where indeed still in the tank and the Doctor had shattered a near by tank which had been empty.

"So he deliberately didn't release them." River realised that the Doctor had a plan.

The Doctor had been wondering around the Tardis for a while now and he was getting confused. He was fairly sure that it wasn't dimensional transcendental. In fact it seemed smaller than it had on the outside. Yet there was definitely bits of Timelord technology and parts of Tardies. But to had more confusion some of the technology wasn't of Gallifreyan origin it was from the Daleks, the Cybermen and the Silence. Then to had even more confusion there was a lot of Sontaran tech involved particularly the various consoles. The Doctor was beginning to wonder if this was actually a Tardis at all. It seemed more like a Sontaran attempt to manufacture a time machine that was based on a Tardis. The Doctor wondered over to a console wondering if it held any answers as to the origin of this vestal. It confirmed that this was a ship of Sontaran origin but it also contained something much more shocking.

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**I hope everyone enjoyed that. Please leave a review to let me know how I'm doing and if you have any suggestions. I got a bit stuck on what to write in this chapter so I hope what I came up with was ok. I'm a bit worried that I'm not writing River right. Finally I'm probably going to leave this story for a couple of weeks to focus on one-shot drabbles and a special story to celebrate new Who on TV I'll try and return to this as fast as I can but I'm not going to make any promises.**


	4. Chapter 4

The Final Experiment

CHAPTER 4

The Doctor was running back to the lab he needed to tell River what he had just found out. Back in the lab the Rani and River were checking all the tanks to make sure nothing had escaped. They heard someone running towards the lab River smiled when she realised it was the Doctor. The Doctor had a serious look on face as he said "There's something you both need to know about the Rani."

The Rani sneered but River looked at the Doctor willing him to speak "Go ahead sweetie."

The Doctor knew it was now or never. "When I ran off I looked at the computers. Sontaran computers and I discovered that the Rani was actually a Ganger."

River looked shocked but the Doctor continued "She was created by the Sontaran experimental research department. The research department come up with ways to help the Sontarans win the war. They work on weapons, ships, tactics, time travel and new ways of cloning and creating enemy duplicates."

The Rani and River both knew were this was heading. "The Rani was one such experiment. The Sontarans had stolen some of the Flesh. At the same time the Sontarans were also on the verge of creating a time shape but they needed a time traveller to activate it."

River had more or less guessed the rest but she needed to know for sure. "The Flesh still had a copy of my conscience and a copy of the Masters the two combined with various other minds and the body of a dead human created the Rani. She stole one of the Sontarans time ships bevelling herself to actually be the Rani and started the Final Experiment."

The Rani had broken down the cool confident woman they had seen was now gone in her place was a weeping girl. "So all my experiments where for the Sontarans. What am I?" she managed to say through her tears.

River knelt down in front of the Rani "The experiments were for the Sontarans I'm guessing they used you to do their dirty work. You are whatever you want to be."

River thought about all the times the flesh had impacted her life. She wondered what she'd be if it had never been invented.

"We can deactivate you or we can expose you to our Tardis enabling you to become an independent human. It's up to you."

The Doctor watched as he saw River deal with the Rani he felt immensely proud of the woman he'd trained. He thought how much she'd changed since she first met him as Mels.

The Rani managed to say through her tears "I want to live."

BACK IN STORMCAGE

The Tardis re-materialised outside River's cell in Stormcage. The Doctor and River stepped out.

"So the Rani was an experiment by the Sontarans to improve them." asked River.

"Basically yeah. But we've given her a human life and cleared her mind of Sontaran conditioning she now knows that she's not a Timelord." the Doctor summarised.

"We should go see her at some point. Check she's all right."

"Hmm maybe we should go tomorrow. Maybe we could take Benny with us?" the Doctor got excited about his plan.

River smiled at her husband wondering if they were going to visit the Rani and Benny or if he would have changed his mind tomorrow. Her impossible husband. Her mad man with a box.

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**Thanks for reading as always please leave a review. Sorry if this ending is a bit anti-climactic but I've been losing interest in this story for a while but I wanted to end it so I came up with something quick to finish it before I decided to just leave it. For now I'm going to leave story arcs alone but I may have an arc or two in the future. My next story is called Mirror Image and shall feature my first original monster it should be up by Friday at the latest so please read it if you get the chance. Once again thanks for reading and please leave a review.**


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